THE ROLE OF RESILIENCE AND PREPAREDNESS IN NURSES WORKING DURING HURRICANE DISASTERS

Problem: Resilience is the ability to “bounce back” from adversity and can serve as an avenue for nurses to recover from the disaster and subsequent potential issues related to coping with the event. To date, very little is found in the literature specific to nurses and how they adapt to and recover from disasters in their personal or professional lives. Theory: Taormina’s (2015) theory of adult personal resilience and Veenema’s disaster management model (World Health Organization [WHO] and International Council of Nurses [ICN], 2009) provided the foundation of this study. Hypothesis: It is hypothesized that levels of personal and professional preparedness affect resilience and that resilience affects compassion satisfaction and/or compassion fatigue. Design/Methods: A non-experimental descriptive correlational design was used. A convenience sample of 110 nurses, APRN, RN, or LVN, who have worked in a disaster or during a disaster relief effort were recruited. Data collection occurred during October 2018. Information collected included personal and professional preparedness/demographic information, the Connor-Davidson-10 (CD-RISC-10) resilience scale, Taormina’s Adult Personal Resilience Scale (APRS), and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL). Analysis: Data was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation and linear regression with moderation